Mercenaries from the 9th Infantry Regiment of Russia's hybrid military force in the Donbas captured in firefight on June 27, 2016 being interrogated by the Ukrainian Security Service. They stated that they were commanded by officers from the regular Russian army and that a mercenary private's monthly pay in their unit is 15000 rubles or about $250 U.S. dollars. (Image: video screen capture)

The indirect costs of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea as well as his military muscle-flexing elsewhere which include the isolation of Russia internationally and greater repression and human suffering domestically are perhaps incalculable.

But the direct costs for the military can be measured, and they are growing, quite possibly beyond the level of sustainability, just one reason behind the Kremlin leader’s declaration during his Open Line program today that he plans to cut defense spending over the next few years.

Such cuts appear likely to hit personnel and especially military retirees in the first instance, places where a great deal of money can be saved – in Russia today, personnel increasingly are expensive relative to equipment – but there are limits to that given that such cuts undermine the loyalty of those in uniform.

Mykhailo Pashkov(Image: segodnya.ua)

In today’s Kyiv Segodnya, Mykhailo Pashkov of the Razumkov Centerargues that Russia is following in the path of the USSR in its military spending, a course that he suggests contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union and is placing ever more unbearable burdens on the latter.

Supporting the unrecognized republics its wars have created is costing Moscow enormous sums, something over 200 million US dollars annually for South Ossetia alone. Over its entire existence, that republic has cost Moscow about a billion US dollars and Transdniestria about six billion US dollars.

At present, Ukrainian governments estimate that Moscow is spending “approximately six billion US dollars annually on its war in the Donbas, about equally divided between supporting the unrecognized republics there and funding its military operations. But Russia can’t stop because if it does, those and the other unrecognized republics will soon cease to exist.

The Crimean Anschluss is also adding to the burdens the Russian state budget must bear, Pashkov continues. Moscow is currently spending approximately 1.4 billion US dollars every year on that occupied Ukrainian peninsula, an amount that accounts for 73 percent of all government budgets there.

As far as Russian military operations in Syria are concerned, Moscow has spent close to a billion US dollars, according to some estimates. Just how much, however, is unknown because the Russian government has declared these figures “a military secret.” And the costs are mounting because this military action is continuing.

If one sums up all the costs to the Russian budget of the wars in Syria and Ukraine and the support of occupied Crimea and the unrecognized republics, they total approximately three to four percent of the Russian state budget this year. And that figure is only “the tip of the iceberg” of Russian spending on promoting itself abroad, Pashkov says.

It doesn’t include the money Moscow spends on propaganda, cyber war, secret operations, and support of agents of influence throughout the world. The Ukrainian analyst says that Kyiv estimates Moscow now spends two million US dollars a year on the Ukrainian branch of the Institute of CIS Countries alone.

Sanctions add to the burden, having cost Russia some 30 billion US dollars in lost GDP growth, a figure to which one must add nine billion US dollars lost because of the Kremlin’s counter-sanctions program, the analyst continues.

All of this is leading to the militarization of Russia: Moscow has the third largest military budget in the world, but Russia’s GDP is not even in the top ten of the economies of the world. Russia now maintains more than four million siloviki (1.9 million in the army, one million in the police, and another million in other forces).

“In other words,” Pashkov says, “the number of militarized structures in the foreign policy of Russia is comparable with the number of people in uniform in the former USSR, even though the population in the Russian Federation is only half as large.” The Soviet leadership couldn’t carry this burden: ultimately neither will the Russian, he concludes.

Hahaha “Moscows ally”…
Wow you sound like you uncovered that non aggression pact for the first time.
So what, doesn’t make one an ally.
They fought against one another, while Bandera fought alongside Hitler.

Aaah that old trusty bastion, petty name calling when your exposed.
I don’t need to parrot anyone. True history books tell the true story. Im sorry you’re ashamed of it. But honestly don’t know why? You sound like a fascist.lol
“True intellect”…..ha classic

Brent

Bankrupt the Kremlin mafia. Make them pay reparations too

Ihor Dawydiak

Due to a lack of funds, Putin the Pompous Pederast has been forced to scrap upgrades to his rust filled derelict Navy. So what will be next in line? Evidently, Vovochka has focused his bulbous eyeballs on Russia’s State Pension fund. That should prove to be most interesting for an aging Russian population that can barely survive with the minuscule assets that they currently possess.

Mick Servian

Oh those evil Russians must be so glad you care about their pensions. Lol
“Putin the pederast”???
Seriously? That’s where your thoughts go?

zorbatheturk

For $250 a month a Russian will sell his sister to a Turkish brothel.

Mick Servian

Thanks buddy…
Nice racist bigotry

zorbatheturk

Bogov.

Dirk Smith

That’s their last remaining export as everyone flees fascist ruSSia. At any price $$$. 😉

Victor Victory

Putin himself has a bank account worth over $200B +

I’m sure he has unlimited money to sadly, keep the war going for a long time.

See that’s all you can think of.
The actual sad part is how much disdain you show to real pedophile victims by throwing baseless accusations and photos without context around, and laughing about it.
But you don’t give a shit.
See that’s the sad bit. That the US used people like you around the world.

Murf

This is why the blockade needed to be done.
The factories are now idle and will cost millions to restart.
Thousands are out of work which will hurt tens of thousands more.
Keep bleeding Russia of treasure and this will end quicker.

Terry Washington

Old time empires may have been enriched by their conquests but Putin is being bankrupted by them!

Mick Servian

wow such hatred for Russia here.
but it leads to some biased thinking, mostly not steeped in reality

gmab

Go to Donbas – you’ll see some reality. Who doesn’t hate Russia?

Mick Servian

What reality? Yours?
Normal people don’t hate Russia….tinfoil extremists like you do.

gmab

Go preach somewhere else inside your fantasy land.

Mick Servian

Thanks for the name calling.
Doesn’t change the fact Ukraine is fighting against their Orthodox brethren. Why?

Name calling? A normal person will fight back when attacked & their country is invaded by ruski scum. Make sense to you now?

Mick Servian

Yeah sure buddy.
Those people weren’t Ukrainians? People in those breakaway regions are Ukrainians. Just not for much longer it seems.
All i see u calling for is ethnic cleansing. Crocodile tears for crimeans just means you realized what real estate you lost by such a bs decision.

gmab

I’m talking about the ruski mercs & regular army conscripts “on vacation”. I see you have a long learning curve ahead of you.

Mick Servian

Maybe.
No proof was shown yet.
Still most of the people there are Ukrainian

Quartermaster

Given Putin’s behavior in Crimea and the Donbas, not hating Russia is simply silly. Unbiased people hate Russia.

Mick Servian

Did you just hear yourself…..not hating “cubans”, “iranians”, “israelis” is simply silly….what?
Ok…go on, go for your life then.

Mick Servian

Oh my god.
This whole site is frequented by the lowest, bigoted racist denominator. Hahaha
Good luck to you faux westerners.

About the Source

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. Earlier he has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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